Two films by Egyptian directors – Souad by Ayten Amin and Seven Years Around the Nile Delta by Sharief Zohairy – will screen in the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival.

The festival's 71st edition will take place in two stages: the Industry Event (1-5 March) and film screenings within the Summer Special (9-20 June).

The 2020 drama Souad was scheduled to screen within Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection, which was eventually cancelled. It received the Cannes Festival's support with a possibility to premiere in other festivals.

Souad will screen in the festival's Panorama section, where it will have its world premiere.

"The film revolves around the relationship of two teenage sisters in one of Egypt's Nile Delta cities, one of them holds a secret life in the virtual world," reads a brief posted on IMDb.

Souad is directed by Ayten Amin, who wrote the script together with Mahmoud Ezzat. The film stars Bassant Ahmed, Basmala Elghaiesh and Hussein Ghanem.

Seven Years Around the Nile Delta (Saba' sanawat hawl delta al-neel) by Sharief Zohairy will have its international premiere.

It will screen in the Berlinale's Forum Expanded section.

"With the start of the Egyptian revolution, Sharief Zohairy started travelling through the Nile Delta for a period of seven years. The result was the five-and-a-half-hour film, which shows everyday life there and makes the genre of the travel film appear in a whole different light in pandemic times," reads the film's synopsis.

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